Sen. Irving Gerstein, chair of the Conservative Fund Canada (CFC), made the brief declaration during a speech Saturday to delegates attending the party’s convention.

His remarks appear to partly contradict allegations contained in an RCMP document filed in court in July.

That affidavit was based on discussions with lawyers representing Nigel Wright, the right-hand man to Harper who left his job once the secret payment scandal broke last May.

In the court document, the Mounties said the Conservatives were considering paying off Duffy’s expenses if they were $32,000 but then balked once the bill skyrocketed to $90,000.

As well, the police revealed that although Harper had publicly identified Wright as the only person aware of the secret scheme to pay Duffy’s expenses, three others in the prime minister’s office, and Gerstein, were also aware.

Senator Irving Gerstein

Gerstein, a former president of Peoples Jewellers appointed to the Senate by Harper at the same time as Duffy in 2008, has not spoken publicly since those court documents were filed.

As the party convention was drawing to a close, Gerstein took to the podium to deliver an address about the healthy state of finances in the party’s coffers.

“Let me clarify two issues,” he said.

“First, I made it absolutely clear to Nigel Wright that the CFC (Conservative Fund Canada) would not pay for Senator Mike Duffy’s disputed expenses.”

“And it never did.”

Gerstein said nothing about the allegations in the RCMP affidavit — such as what he knew about the scheme and Wright’s ultimate decision to pay the $90,000 himself, and whether the Conservative party had initially considered picking up some of the tab.

In their affidavit, the Mounties said: “The Conservative Party was initially going to repay the money for Duffy, from a Conservative fund, when it was believed the amount he owed was approximately $32,000. The fund is controlled by Senator Gerstein.”

“When it was realized that the cost was actually $90,000, it was too much money to ask the Conservative Party to cover,” the RCMP said. “Wright then offered to cover the cost for Duffy, believing it was the proper ethical decision that taxpayers not be out that amount of money.”

The Senate expense scandal has had the Harper government on the ropes for months. And although the prime minister has consistently said he was kept in the dark about the deceptive scheme to fool Canadians into thinking Duffy paid his own expenses, questions have only grown because of his handling of the affair.

Critics note that Harper’s story has changed on how many people in his own office knew about the scheme, as well as whether Wright resigned or was fired.

As well, although the scandal broke in mid-May, Canadians didn’t learn until this week — through a bombshell Duffy himself delivered in a speech to the Senate — that the Conservative party paid $13,000 to cover his legal bills in connection with the housing expense talks.

In his speech Saturday, Gerstein confirmed that this happened but he made no apologies to Tories that the funds they donated to the party went to Duffy’s lawyer.

“At the request of Nigel Wright, the Fund did agree to pay legal fees limited to a maximum $12,000 plus HST, because at the time Senator Duffy was a member of the Conservative caucus, and as you know the fund sometimes assists caucus members with legal expenses, as do other parties.”

Gerstein boasted to Conservatives that their party has a first-rate fundraising machine that has raised more than $200 million in the last decade. He said the party is debt-free and now has $14 million in the bank.

Mark Kennedy arrived on Parliament Hill in 1988 as an Ottawa Citizen political reporter and has covered eight federal election campaigns. He won a National Newspaper Award for enterprise reporting and... read more spent a decade specializing in health-care coverage. He is currently parliamentary bureau chief at The Ottawa Citizen.View author's profile